Fang hua

A sprawling story taking place during and after the Cultural Revolution in China mainly following three characters of a theatre troupe (Liu Feng, He Xiaoping, Suizi).

The film does not directly condemn nor does it fully praise this tumultuous dark time in Chinese history. Instead, as the title intimates, the film focuses on the relationships between the young troupe members and the transition from youth to adulthood. In this way, this film reminds me of Jiang Wen's, "In the Heat of the Sun".

The scenes of the girls bullying the main character and new member, He Xiaoping, rang with such authenticity and personal pain. The stories of Suizi and Xiaoping's fathers that were "rehabilitated" are heartbreaking as well. This might be because these scenes may have come from author Yan Geling's personal experience (she was also a dancer in a performance troupe). I personally appreciated the female perspective, though the film's gaze is somewhat male, (director is Feng Xiaogang), it felt as if I was peeking behind the curtain of the women's locker room, not for perverted reasons, but to see another world of intrigue I'm unaware of.

The more epic scenes of war did not ring as true and seemed a bit overly patriotic too be honest. I wonder if the film did not have to go through Chinese censors how it might've been different.

Regardless, the film does not shy away from the failures of the Cultural Revolution and portrays the horrors of war vividly. Be careful, there are a lot of shaky camera, handheld, steadicam movements throughout the film, so if you get close seats, you're likely to get motion sick.

As the film ends, the tone of the film begins to regain it's authenticity particularly in the relationship between Liu Feng and Xiaoping. Their story is equally tragic yet hopeful and full of love. When Xiaoping finally asks Liu Feng her question, it's sweet and heartbreaking.

The film worships those young carefree days, at times too excessively with it's montages and emotional music, but at the same time it shows how much heartache is experienced during those times. That's part of the beauty of youth, that heightened sensitivity to the whole spectrum of emotion: love, anger, longing, hope. It may be why I'm also kinda over it.

Some middle sections of the film meandered and I felt could've been shortened. Overall, I enjoyed following the story of these youth and seeing the mishap of their relationships.

Side Note: Watching this film, I realized how alien this world was to me. Growing up in the U.S., I've also felt certain moments of this alienation when watching the movies here as an Asian American. This gives me further inspiration to pursue telling my own personal stories.

" Youth " was a nice movie. The only thing that actually made me reduce my rating from nine to seven was the second half of the movie. Even though the start was really good, with a nice introduction of the characters and the setting where the events took place, the final half rushed things up. Especially when it came to the leading lady, with her story and take on the war, they just threw that "that is that from now on" and they didn't give a deeper look into it. Plus, the ending could have been better too, not about the actual ending, but the way they wrapped things up. That said, the performances were pretty good from everyone, especially when it came to the dancing scenes. So, overall, seven out of ten.

The editing of "Youth" is the worst I've ever seen. It seems to me that the whole movie is divided into different parts, and these parts have essentially no relations and express completely disparate themes. The first hour exposes some hypercritical persons in the Military Cultural Troupe, most notably Lin Dingding. The second hour basically states that people still like the Military Cultural Troupe even after they leave it. The most memorable scene is the dance of He Xiaoping after she goes mad. The last part is set in the 1990s and describes the miserable life of Liu Feng.

Moreover, there are just quite a few plot holes and the character development fails to a large extent. For instance, nobody understands why He Xiaoping suddenly goes mad. Some actors are simply not professional, and performed rather awkwardly.

In a nutshell, I think the director may be somehow ambitious, but lack the corresponding storytelling and editing skills to achieve his goals.

For people who don't have similar cultural background, this movie is hard to relate to. This movie was sold out in my city ( Northeast in U.S.) every day. Everyone was crying when watching this movie. Tears came down to my face many times. Best Chinese movie in recent 10 years! Sometimes it is not about techniques, a good movie is supposed to touch people's souls, hearts and minds -- this movie did that to me. Go to the theater and watch this movie!

Youth is not a good translate of "Fang Hua". In Chinese, Fang sometimes not only means "young", but also means the pleasant scent of new growing lawn and flowers, and it is the first mean of "fang". "Hua" means beautiful and blooming. In fact the character "hua" is interchangeable with the flower in ancient Chinese tradition, but "hua" gives more meaning in describing young ladies.

We see "youth" is certainly not able to cover the full meaning of the movie. The movie is not about war, love or the time of culture revolution and etc. It is about how "young beautiful flowers" grow and what they have become at particular time of China. The protagonists are a group of youth at their age around 15. They are the very pure flowers. The theme is about change of the those "pure flowers" life while the country is facing a huge change. The movie is to recall and cherish.